Bean, Mongrel Dogs return to ParkFest stage Tuesday

Monday, June 24, 2013
John Bean

A pair of acts will return to the Bob Flanigan Bandshell at Robe Ann Park for this Tuesday's edition of ParkFest.

John Bean will make his second appearance at the Greencastle Civic League's annual summer music festival, while the Mongrel Dogs will return to the festival they have been gracing since 2008.

Like each installment of ParkFest, the June 25 show is set for 6:30 p.m.

John Bean, who plays folk styles on the guitar, banjo and fiddle, came from a singing family. His grandfather collected songs in the mountains of Virginia at the beginning of the 20th century, songs passed down to John through his father.

His father also learned songs that were recorded in the 1920s and 1930s, and those recordings also formed part of John's repertoire.

Living in Iowa City during the folk song revival of the 1960s, he made his own guitar and learned to accompany himself on traditional songs including blues, ballads, jug band and string band music.

He was influenced by popular folk singers such as Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, but his primary influences were early string bands such as the Skillet Lickers and Uncle Dave Macom.

In the summer of 1968 he was the lead singer (and kazoo player) on an album called the Fat City Jug Band. Since that time he learned the banjo playing for the contra dance in Bloomington, where he still performs several times a year, and subsequently learned the fiddle.

Not satisfied with the old German factory instruments he could afford, he studied violin making at Indiana University and has made, repaired, and sold a number of instruments. The violin he currently plays is one he made.

His repertoire is eclectic, and should provide examples of a variety of lively traditional folk songs and styles on Tuesday evening.

Mongrel Dogs

Two DePauw University professors, Istvan Csicsery-Ronay and Ron Dye, make up Mongrel Dogs. The two have been playing together since 2007. They cover a range of music including folk blues, country, and soul music and also write and perform original music.

For much of its existence, the band has concentrated on covering a large repertoire of songs. In recent years, however, they have concentrated on writing and performing their own music.

Alex Puga, who is a professor of Spanish at DePauw, will also join the Mongrel Dogs. Puga has been playing harmonica in Southern and Central Indiana, and in the Louisville area, for the past 13 years. He has accompanied more local acts than he can count, and he has recorded with Snake Drive, Hambone, Blues Side Up, and Eric Brown.

Csicsery-Ronay and Dye fondly describe their music as "mongrel" music because they enjoy blending stylistic elements from different kinds of music and make no attempts to present traditionally derived music in an "authentic" way.

"We try all kinds of things, but no matter what the material was originally supposed to sound like, it all ends up sounding like us, but we're OK with that," Dye said.

Putnam Inn will be the food vendor for this week's show. The Civic League is sponsoring the show.

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